


The Relaxation of Jensen Ackles

by Polly_Phemus (orphan_account)



Series: Dom Down the Hall [8]
Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - BDSM, Courtship, M/M, Massage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-11-16 14:22:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11254734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Polly_Phemus
Summary: Having schooled Jensen at the pool table, Jared's ready for the next step.  Is Jensen?  For that matter, what is the next step?(Talking.  Lots and lots of talking is always the next step in this series.)





	The Relaxation of Jensen Ackles

As much as Jared might've wanted to just sit there forever, suspended in summer twilight, holding Jensen's hand and feeling more peaceful than he had in years, he knew that it wasn't possible. He glanced over at Jensen, who'd tilted his head back to watch the stars and planes and satellites become more visible as the sky grew darker. Jensen looked pretty peaceful, too.

Jared looked up at the sky himself. He felt Jensen's thumb brush lightly on his hand, just sweeping back and forth lazily. It was...nice. Not earth-shattering, but who said everything had to be? It was comforting without being condescending, reassuring without being cloying.

It was perfect. And perfection never lasts. But Jared was going to do his damndest to prolong it. Unfortunately, his stomach had other ideas, rumbling loudly in the quiet night. One nutritionally dodgy snack bar and a couple of beers weren't enough to keep Jared going for long

Jensen laughed at the sound, then confessed, "I'd been thinking I'd smoke you like a trout and then demand payment in the form of an immediate dinner date, but you took me to the School of Pool and I have no plan."

"I've got a pot of spaghetti sauce and some pizza dough in the fridge," Jared offered. "I've got cheese and the sauce already has hamburger, sausage and mushrooms in it. I should have some artichoke hearts. Sound like something you'd be into?"

"That sounds like something I'd very much be into," Jensen said.

"Plus, you know, I can't go back to work until Wednesday, so my boss lent me her 'Wonder Sub" DVDs."

"Lyle Waggoner?" Jensen sounded pretty excited at the prospect.

"The entire series," Jared confirmed. "I haven't seen it in forever and I never really watched it that closely."

"Me neither, but I remember kind of liking it."

"Wanna give it a shot?"

"Jared Padelecki, you have stepped in with excellent plans when my own resources failed me," Jensen said with mock solemnity. "I have some salad greens that are beginning to feel their age to contribute."

"Great!" Jared was surprised and pleased by how easy it was. It wasn't any more stressful than making plans with Misha. Less so, even, since Jensen was already on the premises and unlikely to get distracted by life's rich beauty and show up an hour late with a collection of dried leaves and found candy wrappers and several improbable tales to tell.

"I just have to walk the dogs first," Jared said.

"May I join you?"

"Course," Jared said, jumping up. "Why don't you stay here and guard the beers while I round up the kids?"

"Will do," said Jensen. Jared was glad. Jensen looked relaxed lounging on the grass and Jared wasn't sure how often Jensen really relaxed. Weren't lawyers supposed to be busy all the time? He'd said he sometimes slept in his office. Jared had only stayed over at Atlanta Pines when there'd been a bad storm and the power was iffy and the roads were terrible.

Jared didn't waste any time getting the dogs. Even Zucchini cooperated, not dragging her heels or stopping to primp or otherwise trying to put off the inevitable moment of having to go outside. Jared only paused long enough to grab a couple of bottles of water; he didn't know about Jensen but he definitely could not live by beer alone.

Jensen had barely moved while Jared was gone. 

"Hey," he said when Cardy bounded up to him, followed by Jared and Zucchini. "Didn't catch your names, I'm afraid," he said apologetically to the dogs.

"Mr. Frisky there is Cardy, short for Cardamom. The more relaxed dog would be Zucchini Blossom, or just Zucchini."

"Nice to meet you," Jensen said, extending his hand. The dogs sniffed him and apparently recognized him from earlier in the week, going into exciting barks upon making his reacquaintance. "Beer?" Jensen offered, reaching for the depleted six-pack

"Nah," said Jared. "I'm ready for water. You?"

"Perfect," Jensen said, taking a final swallow of beer before accepting water from Jared. 

The dogs hovered around for awhile, then apparently decided they had to make their own fun. Cardy bounced off to sniff some other dogs while Zucchini followed at a sedate pace.

"They gonna be okay?" Jensen asked as Jared flopped next to him.

"Oh, sure. They're really well-trained. I'm pretty sure Zucchini could actually get herself back into the building if the need arose."

Jensen just nodded. Jared tried not to frown. He was not a comfortable-silence kinda guy and he'd exhausted his meager supply of patience for that while they'd been watching the sunset.

"You know," Jared started. "Osric wanted to make sure that I had someone to talk to. Another sub. Because of all the emotional stuff with being punished and all. But what about you?"

Jensen laughed, but not like he found the question remotely funny. "In that situation, I wasn't supposed to have emotions on two levels: being a dom and being a lawyer dispensing a corporal."

"But you don't normally do corporal."

"No, I don't. I've only done it a few times for work and never in my personal life."

"Never?"

"Nope," Jensen said and drank some water. "I just...when I'm with someone. A sub. I'm not into punishing them. Anyone. I only like hurting people because they themselves like to be hurt. And I don't want to be in charge of someone else's behavior."

Jared liked what he was hearing for his own reasons, but it seemed like Jensen was kind of conflicted.

"That's good," Jared said.

"Not everyone thinks so. Most people don't. I've had relationships where people expected me to be some kind of twenty-four hour disciplinarian who'd micromanage their lives. And then when I wasn't like that, some of them would even do things just to provoke me into punishing them. And that's just not what I want out of a relationship. Not disciplining grown-ass adults and especially not being manipulated into it."

"Me neither," Jared said. "I mean, from the other side of the fence."

"I kinda got that vibe from you," Jensen said. "I mean, you copped to the problem at work as soon as you found out about it. You didn't need anyone to tell you what was wrong or why you should feel bad about it. The corporal was almost for form's sake, although your ass probably doesn't agree."

"Maybe it does," Jared said lightly, trying to inject a note of playfulness into their discussion. "That's why it's healing so quickly."

Jensen chuckled for real this time. "Like an old-fashioned trial by ordeal? 'Judge, this man's ass is in fine fettle for having been thoroughly beaten. Clearly, he is pure of heart'."

"Sure, why not?" Jared asked. "Centuries of wishful thinking could never have possibly led any society astray."

Jensen laughed again. "My god, some of the stuff I read about it in legal history classes was unbelievable."

"I nearly flunked every history class I ever took because I'd just get so pissed off about how they used to treat subs," Jared offered in sympathy.

"Let me guess...your idea of nearly flunking is getting a B-," Jensen teased.

"Something like that," Jared said. He'd never gotten anything below a B, but he'd had to seriously check his indignation at the door on more than one occasion.

"So that's my thing," Jensen said. "I didn't like doing the corporal, and I probably shouldn't have done it to someone I was already attracted to, but I really wanted to help you out. Not because I've kinda been checking you out since you moved in, but because once we actually talked, you seemed like a really nice guy, stuck in this weird little place where you couldn't get a fee-free or even sliding-scale corporal and I had the resources to help you out, but only if I administered the punishment myself."

"Thank you," Jared said sincerely. When he'd initially asked for Jensen's help, he'd had no idea how complex the whole thing was and now he was finding out that there'd been some personal cost to Jensen as well.

"See, that's weird. I want to date you because you're good-looking and fun and smart and funny and all that stuff, but here you are, thanking me for strapping and caning you over someone else's dumb-ass mistake."

"I was actually thanking you for helping me out," Jared said. "Not so much for the actual nature of the help."

But Jensen was on a roll. "Afterward, I felt terrible and I know, boo-hoo, I felt bad while you were physically hurting, but I just wanted to run after you and beg for your forgiveness and take care of you and make sure nothing bad happened and I couldn't."

"Hey, hey, it's all right," Jared said softly, laying his hand on Jensen's shoulder. "Sounds like maybe you should've made sure you had someone to talk to."

"That's a tall order. I mean, I have friends and everything, but I just wasn't expecting it would be as big a deal as it was. So I didn't call them, I just put in nineteen billable hours and tried to pretend like everything was fine."

"Nineteen billable hours in twenty-four hours by the clock? On top of your morning and...helping me?"

"Yeah. I haven't done that in years. Of course, about three years ago that wasn't too much above my average."

"Shit," Jared said. He jumped up and called the dogs. Zucchini, sensing that it was time to go back inside, loped over quickly while Cardy messed around on the grass. "Come on, Cardy, I mean it," Jensen said and Cardy minded.

"They really listen to you," Jensen said admiringly as he stood up.

"They're not the only ones," Jared replied. "We're getting you upstairs, we're getting you fed and then you're getting a massage."

"This is what it looks like when Jared Padalecki takes charge, then?" Jensen asked.

"Damn straight," Jared said. He'd just let it slip out; normally he was deferential and sneaky when he needed to take care of doms. Early childhood social conditioning, reinforced by working with people who really needed to be taken care of but mostly didn't like to acknowledge that fact, people who were furthermore disinclined to pay much heed to a young sub telling them what they should eat. Around Jensen, though, Jared somehow just didn't feel that weight. So far he'd been himself and Jensen seemed to like what he was seeing.

Less than half an hour later, Jensen was at Jared's door, holding a shopping bag he'd retrieved from his apartment. Jared waved him in to the kitchen, where he was preheating the oven. He'd already punched out the pizza dough and, after Jensen was set up at a chopping board with a knife and a big bowl to make the salad, Jared started drizzling oil on the dough.

"Do you have a thing about people slicing the lettuce instead of ripping it with their bare hands?" Jensen asked, as he started pulling out little heads of lettuce from a plastic box.

"I'd never have gotten anywhere in institutional cooking if I did," Jared said cheerfully. He pulled a bag of pre-grated cheeses from the freezer and frowned at it. It was way too orange and clearly his cheddar mix. He wondered why it wasn't labeled. He was usually conscientious about that, just from habit. He quickly found the Italian blend.

"With stainless steel now being a thing that exists in the world, tearing lettuce is really about showing off how much time you have. Or giving little kids something to do to help in the kitchen that doesn't involve sharp objects."

"I see," Jensen said and set to chopping. Jared noted approvingly that all four kinds of lettuce were dark colors: greens and reds. The darker the better, Jared had learned from his dad, and his nutritional science classes backed that up. Professor Gamble had once held up a wedge of iceberg lettuce and a glass of water and told the class that the latter was the better nutritional bet. She'd tended to use gaming metaphors a lot.

"Green onions okay?" Jensen asked once all the lettuce was bite-sized and in the bowl.

"Yes, please!" Jared exclaimed. Jensen gave him a flirty, if somewhat tired, smile and Jared turned back to the pizza to hide his sudden and thankfully fleeting blush. Yeah, he wanted to beg Jensen for a whole bunch of things at some point and apparently Jensen was into that. One more spice to put on his sexual fantasy shelf.

Jensen went on to add tomatoes and cucumbers and called it done. Jared approved and got the sauce on the pizza just as the timer dinged. He quickly whisked together a basic vinaigrette and ushered Jensen into the living room while the pizza baked.

"Did some rearranging, huh?" Jensen asked, looking at the pile of pillows in front of the windows where Jared's wing chairs had been the first time Jensen had visited.

"Misha did that. He's my friend who came to stay over last night." Jared was about to suggest returning the chairs to their rightful place when Jensen flopped out on the cushions. He had apparently not forgotten that he'd been promised a massage.

"Massage time," Jared told Jensen, who simply rolled over on his front in response. Jared settled on a cushion next to him and got to work.

Jared had done a weekend seminar on basic massage as part of his home ec requirements in "personal relationship development," or "how to cater to your dom." He remembered the instructor telling them that a massage could convey a lot of things, based simply on what the masseur was feeling. Jared figured what Jensen probably needed most was relaxation and reassurance, so he put that into the steady strokes of his hands on Jensen's back. His approach was a little scattershot; he didn't want to get in to a checklist mindset. So while he didn't totally flit from one muscle group to another, he also didn't work on Jensen like he was just a chart.

Nor did he ignore his own sensations. Jensen was strong and well-muscled and Jared certainly appreciated the feel of the healthy body under his hands, even through Jensen's tight, soft T-shirt. _Keep it together, Padalecki,_ he cautioned himself. _Just let him know you're here and you want him to relax._

Jensen hummed and sighed appreciatively. When he started making little almost-moans, Jared felt smug. Then Jared chose to feel even more smug when he realized that the almost-moans where too rhythmic to be anything but snores. Jared slowly eased up on his ministrations, not wanting to startle Jensen into wakefulness.

"Nineteen billable hours out of twenty-four," Jared muttered under his breath as we went to check on the pizza. "And everyone was so worried about my being emotionally vulnerable. I could probably wake him up, feed him and he'd be asking for my pledge in an hour."

Jensen snored on in the living room. Jared smiled. He wasn't about to manipulate Jensen like that. He'd never wanted to play those kinds of games and, with Jensen, he had a feeling he wouldn't need to.

**Author's Note:**

> When I was little, I tore up so much lettuce and it was the boringest. When I learned that lettuce can be chopped with a knife, I felt so betrayed.


End file.
